Posted by SARTORIUS on July 25, 2003 at 16:49:46:
In Reply to: Tampa trip posted by Alex on July 25, 2003 at 12:50:35:
Dear Alex,
I see you mentioned seeing the "Florida race" of the Eastern Towhee...this is new to me since, as far as I know, there's just ONE Eastern Towhee, with no subspecies or race on the side. If you're referring to the white eyes instead of red ones, it's really just a southern variety of the bird. You see, some people use the term subspecies (or race) loosely...I don't. Of course...maybe I'm wrong about the whole thing.
So I did a little research, but I just couldn't find anything to contradict myself. The same goes for that "West Indian" Osprey you guys keep talking about...what makes him any more special than the regular Osprey? Heck, for that matter, I don't even believe in that so called "Cuban race" of the Yellow Warbler...to me it's all the same bird. So maybe we should wait until someone does some mitochondrial DNA analysis before we get carried away and call anything with a different color feather a subspecies.
S